Succulent Kiss
by AleesyaRidz
Summary: Amethyst Goldstring is back at Hogwarts for her fifth year. There's an obvious gloominess hanging over the school and it's not just because of Voldemort. The new DADA, Dolores Umbridge, seems to be trying to take over the school. After a terrifying incident in the Forbidden Forest, she realizes that something strange has happened to her and there's no turning back.
1. Prologue

Amethyst Fae Goldstring was panicky and nervous. That was a sentence that came up too frequently in her life. Panicky and nervous were two words that could best describe her. While seemingly self-assured on the outside, Amethyst was cracking on the inside. She wasn't ready for this. Maybe she should stay at home and be homeschooled. Was that allowed?

"Amethyst? Oi, are you listening to me?" said her cousin. Amethyst immediately snapped out of her trance.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What were you saying, Tonks?" Amethyst replied. Her older cousin groaned.

"I was saying that you just have to push your trolley and run straight through the wall. And then your parents and I will follow after you." Tonks answered.

"Are you sure this is safe, Nymphadora? How do we walk through a wall?" Amethyst's father, Louis, asked. The worry in Louis' voice made Amethyst think too hard. What if she ran into the wrong wall? Now, the only thing that was in her mind was her just running smack right into a wall.

"You'll be right, the wall always works. And please call me Tonks; it's a much better name than Nymphadora." Tonks said to her uncle. Louis laughed but still looked unsure.

"It's extremely safe, dear. I used to always go through it when I would send Ted off to school," soothed Adele, Amethyst's mother, as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ready to go through the barrier?" questioned Adele. Amethyst nodded and pushed her trolley towards the wall. As she passed through it, she realized that she was no longer at the regular train station. The girl looked around in wonder as she observed the train station around her. There were many people bustling around her with trolleys and pets. She observed the people around her and she saw a boy showing his friends a tarantula and an old lady chastising a young boy. It was fun to think about how she would be going to school with all these interesting characters.

"Wotcher, Amethyst," said Tonks, suddenly appearing from the wall. "Move out of the way of the barrier." The muggleborn witch jostled her trolley through the crowd and made her way towards the train.

"I think it's time for you to get on the train. It's quarter to eleven and you need to be able to find a compartment," Adele told Amethyst. "So I guess this goodbye for now," Amethyst's mother engulfed her in a hug and held her tightly. "Take care of yourself and make some friends. And please do not get hurt. Ted used to always come back home with all sorts of injuries. Actually, now that I think about that was probably just him being extremely clumsy." The woman laughed softly and squeezed Amethyst even tighter.

"C'mon, Del. We need to say goodbye too," said Louis to his wife. Adele reluctantly let go of her daughter to let the others say goodbye."Have fun and do well in you clas-ACHOO!" Amethyst's father sneezed rather violently. "Sorry, there are so many owls here. My allergies are acting u-ACHOO! Try hard in your classes and please write to us as much as you can." Neither Amethyst nor Adele had the heart to tell him that all wizard mail was sent by owl. Louis hugged his daughter but unlike his wife, he did not try to nearly hug her to death.

Finally, it was time for Amethyst to say goodbye to her cousin.

"I'm gonna miss you, squirt. Please write to me as soon as you can. And if you're sorted into any house that's not Hufflepuff we will disown you," Tonks told Amethyst. The graveness in the Metamorphmagus' voice made Amethyst take her seriously. "I'm just joking," snorted Tonks, looking at Amethyst's panic-stricken face. "Any house should be proud to have you as one of its students." And with that, she hugged Amethyst lovingly.

"Mum, are you crying?" the young girl asked her mother who was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.

"Sorry, it's just that sending you off brings back all these memories of me sending Ted to Hogwarts. I would always cry and beg him to stay with me," replied Adele who then laughed and then leaned her head against her husband's shoulder but then regretted doing so because Louis sneezed yet again.

"I'm really going to miss you all and I promise to write to you!" Amethyst said to her parents. Amethyst grabbed Stanley, her potted plant that was sitting on her suitcase while Adele passed her her suitcase.

"Good luck," Tonks chirped.

"Thank you, I will definitely need it," Amethyst laughed. And with a final goodbye, she stepped onto a train. Now, this was a new territory for her. Where should she sit? What if she couldn't find a compartment to sit in? Amethyst walked down the aisle as she observed the people in the compartments. She then came to an empty compartment and decided to place her suitcase and plant away and stay there. Just as she was about to sit down, someone opened the compartment.

"Hi, I'm so sorry to bother you but could I sit here?" the girl asked tucking a strand of black hair into her bushy ponytail.

"Yeah, um, of course you can," Amethyst answered. The girl thanked her and tucked her suitcase away.

"I'm Rowan by the way; Rowan Avery," the girl introduced herself as she sat down in front of Amethyst. The muggleborn was glad that Rowan had decided to start a conversation. She had thought that they would've had to sit in awkward silence for all of the train ride.

"I'm Amethyst Goldstring. Are you a first year?" Amethyst inquired.

Rowan blushed, "Is it obvious?"

"Well, I figured that if this wasn't your first year at Hogwarts you would probably be sitting with your friends and not with someone you barely know," Amethyst answered.

"You've got a point. So I take it that this is your first year too?" questioned Rowan. Amethyst nodded and was about to say something but another person opened up the compartment door. This time it was a short boy who Amethyst recognized as the one who was being chastised by the old lady.

"Is there room for one more in here?" the boy asked. Rowan and Amethyst nodded and he took a seat next to the window. Suddenly, a knock comes from the window causing the two girls to jump in surprise. The boy hastily opens the window and Amethyst saw that it was the old lady from before.

"Neville, your toad!" the old lady yelled. For a lady who was quite small in stature the loud volume of her voice surprised Amethyst. The old lady passed the toad through the window and said, "Please do not lose him again. And make sure that your first year of Hogwarts is a good one,"

"I will, Gran," the boy replied.

"Good, I'll see you during the Christmas holidays,"

"Bye, Gran!" the boy bid is grandmother farewell and shut the window. He did this just on time because the train blew it's whistle and began to depart the station. Amethyst saw her parents and Tonks out the window and waved to them. She was really going to miss them. Even though Tonks had told her that Hogwarts was an amazing place she was still scared of what was going to happen there and Tonks had refused to tell her how students were sorted into houses so it would be a surprise for Amethyst.

"I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Neville Longbottom," the boy told the two girls.

"Amethyst Goldstring," the brunette hair girl stated.

"Rowan Avery," said the other girl. On hearing the black girl's name, Neville looked rather taken aback.

"Avery? As in the Avery family?" Neville asked.

"If you're talking about the family that is commonly linked to You-Know-Who then yes; I'm from that family. But I'm not like the rest of them. I know what they did was wrong and I plan on staying as far away from that as I can," Rowan replied rather coolly. Tonks had told Amethyst about You-Know-Who and his cult of Death Eaters and how Voldemort was killed by the Boy Who Lived.

There was an awkward silence in the compartment so Amethyst decided to try and break the ice.

"Do either of you know what house you want to be sorted into?" she asked the two first years. This seemed to ease the tension in the compartment.

"I'd like to be in Slytherin or Ravenclaw. A lot of the most successful witches and wizards have been in those houses. And of course, Merlin himself was a Slytherin," Rowan answered

"Well, Gran always says that Gryffindor is the best house and my parents were in Gryffindor but I don't know what house I would fit into," said Neville, "What about you?"

"I think all the houses are quite nice so I would be proud to be in any of them," she replied.

The trio started to talk to each other and they all started to feel more at ease in each other's company. They traded stories of they're families and laughed at each other's jokes. Amethyst found out a lot about the two other students. She found out that Rowan adored everything to do with Quidditch and that she had an older brother who used to go to Hogwarts and she found out that Neville was a plant lover like herself and that he was an only child who lived with his grandmother.

Unexpectedly, Neville's toad leapt out of his hands and hopped out of the compartment.

"Trevor!" Neville called.

"Do you want any help looking for him?" Amethyst offered.

"No, thank you. I think I'll be fine," Neville told her and with that, he dashed out in search of his toad.

"Look at the time, we've got half an hour until we reach Hogwarts. We should change into our uniforms, there are changing rooms near the centre of the train," Rowan said. Amethyst grabbed her uniform from her trunk and the two girls made their way to the changing rooms.

After they changed, they slowly walked back to their compartment.

"What's your wand made of?" Rowan asked as she watched Amethyst inspecting her wand.

"Cherrywood, dragon heartstring and it's fourteen inches," replied Amethyst showing Rowan her wand. It was a rather long wand with a pinkish gold hue and a light purple stone at the top. "What's yours like?"

Rowan pulled her wand out of her robe pocket "Laurelwood, unicorn hair and eleven inches," The wand was either black or an extremely dark brown colour but the top of it had been carved into a swirl shape and was gold.

They continued talking about wands when they got back to the compartment but stopped when Neville came back holding his toad.

"Oh good, you found your toad!" exclaimed Rowan.

"Yeah, I found him on the window of a compartment," Neville puffed. He was somewhat out of breath from looking around the train for Trevor. Luckily, he had had the help of a nice but extremely bossy girl who insisted on helping him or he might not have found his toad.

"You should go and change; we'll be there soon," Amethyst told him.

"That's a good idea," replied Neville who quickly grabbed his uniform and left the compartment.

When he returned, the train came to a halting stop.

"We're here," Amethyst whispered. She was extremely nervous yet very excited at the same time. "Do we bring our trunks with us?"

Rowan shook her head, "No, we leave all our stuff here and they'll be brought to the castle,"

Amethyst whispered a quick goodbye to Stanley and exited the compartment with the other two and then stepped out of the train. Amethyst was about to ask where they needed to but then a booming voice answered her question.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" The source of this voice came from a gigantic man with a very bushy beard.

The gigantic man lead the group of bumbling first years up a slender and precipitous stony path. With the darkness around the path it reminded Amethyst of a possible crime scene from the thriller films she would stay up watching late at night.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec. Jus' round this bend here," the bearded man called.

The curious first year all gasped in wonder. The path opened up to a dark and daunting lake but it was the castle that sat regally upon the mountain.

To call it magical would be an understatement. With turrets and towers, the castle reminded Amethyst of something from fairytales. It gave her goosebumps to look at it in its full glory against the backdrop of the many stars in the sky.

"No more'n four to a boat!" called the hairy man as he pointed to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. The first years jostled their way into the boats and Amethyst found herself in a boat with Neville and Rowan. The fleet smoothly drifted on as if they were mere paper boats in a bathtub. No one said a single word as they were much too engrossed in taking in the majestic castle.

Then, something grabbed Amethyst's hand that was placed on the edge of the boat and tried to pull her into the water. Amethyst attempted to tug her hand away from what seemed to be a reddish-purple coloured tentacle. The tentacle pulled her so hard that it almost tipped the entire boat. Rowan and Neville realized what was happening and rushed over to help her. The both of them grabbed her and with big pull the tentacle release it's grip on her arm and made the three of them fall back.

"What was that?" Amethyst whispered.

"It's the Giant Squid; it lives in the lake all year round," Rowan answered. All year round? Amethyst would definitely try to avoid the lake from now on.

"Heads down!" yelled the large man who was sitting in a boat at the front of the fleet. All the first immediately ducked their heads down as they passed through a curtain of ivy and were taken through what seemed to be an underground tunnel. They soon reached the end of the passage and they all stepped out of the boats and onto the rock and pebble-filled ground.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" the big hairy man asked Neville.

"Trevor!" Neville cried in joy.

"How do you keep losing him?" I questioned. Neville simply shrugged.

The man leads us up a large flight of stones steps to an enormous and grand door. He raised a fist which was probably the size of my head and knocked three times on the door.

The door opened to reveal a serious looking witch wearing emerald robes. Amethyst remembered her as Professor McGonagall, the witch that had come to explain Hogwarts to her muggle family. McGonagall opened up the to let the first years through the overwhelmingly large entrance hall that was so big it most likely could've held her house inside of it. McGonagall brought the anxious group of students into an empty chamber and started to explain how the four houses worked.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." The Hogwarts professor looked around at the students in disdain for they were anything but neat and tidy looking.

As McGonagall left the room what looked like 100 ghosts but in reality was probably only about twenty drifted in through a wall. Amethyst screamed in fright as she saw the translucent stark white figures above her.

"Move along now," said McGonagall's sharp voice as she returned to the room. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." She ordered the first years into a line and everyone did for it seemed that they all got the idea that the woman was not someone to mess with. She took them through the large double doors to another hall.

Amethyst couldn't even find the words to describe this hall. It was simply enchanting to look at the hundreds of thousands of candles floating mid-air. There seemed to be no ceiling as the stars shone like jewels above them.

Her thoughts were interrupted by McGonagall placing a ragged hat on a stool but it was what the hat did that startled her.

It started to sing:

 _"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuff are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _If you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

All the students and professors clapped at the end of his song and it tipped it's pointed top to the tables as if it were bowing to them.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment."When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A small girl walked up to the hat and placed it on her head. A couple seconds passed until the yelled,

"Hufflepuff!"

What must have been the Hufflepuff table clapped and cheered as the first sorted student made her way towards the table.

"Avery, Rowan!" McGonagall said. Rowan stepped out from behind Amethyst and walked nervously towards the stool and sat down. She placed the pointed hat on top of her head and gulped.

"Slytherin!"

Amethyst could see Rowan give a sigh of relief and smiled as she walked to the cheering table of silver and green-clad students. The sorting went on like this for awhile until Amethyst's name was called out after newly sorted Ravenclaw, Anthony Goldstein.

"Goldstring, Amethyst!" called McGonagall. Amethyst's heart was beating hard against her chest. She sat down on the stool and placed the hat on her head and it drooped down to cover her eyes.

"Hmmm," the Sorting Hat mused, "You seem like a good character. You've got a good amount of brains in this head and it looks like you're quite ambitious about your future. But what's this? You seem to have some undiscovered courage and that holds quite a lot of potential. It better be... Gryffindor!"

Amethyst grinned while the Gryffindor table cheered and applauded her. The sorting continued and was uneventful apart from Neville forgetting to remove the hat after being sorted into Gryffindor and turning a bright red as went to sit down next to Amethyst and then everyone including Amethyst's interest was piqued when Potter, Harry was called. The name sent whispers down the hall for everyone knew who he was. Harry Potter was eventually sorted into Gryffindor and Amethyst knew that the house wouldn't be too peaceful with him in her house.

Finally, the last student was sorted into Slytherin and Albus Dumbledore stood up in front of the entire school.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Amethyst was confused at hearing such an odd speech but no else seemed bothered so Amethyst simply just moved on from it and set her eyes on the mountains of food. She had been so busy thinking about other things that she had forgotten how hungry she was. She immediately tucked into the food around her.

She didn't speak much to the people around her apart from discussing classes with Neville who she was beginning to take a liking to. Soon, the food around began to disappear and Dumbledore stood up yet again. Amethyst braced herself for him to say something that sounded like a quote from the Mad Hatter but instead, Dumbledore started to say something that made sense.

"Ahern - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well. I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

The headmaster said the last sentence so gravely that Amethyst was not sure if it was a joke. And even if it was, not that many people laughed.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore as he gave a small flick with his wand and glittering gold ribbon came out-out and twirled itself into words. Tonks hadn't told her about any school song. Amethyst hated singing for she was extremely tone deaf. "Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

The entire school started singing the song out of time and out of tune which made Amethyst smile. When almost everyone had finished they still had to wait for two red-haired twins from Gryffindor who sang the school song to the tune of a sad funeral march.

After the two had finished, Dumbledore bid the student farewell and sent them all to bed. A prefect named Percy told all the first years to follow him out the hall and up a marble staircase. Maybe it was the droopiness in her eyelids that made her disorientated but to Amethyst, the way to the dorms seemed quite difficult as Percy had had to lead them through all these sliding panels and tapestries.

Amethyst was basically half asleep until an odd little man swooped down near her head.

"Go away, Peeves or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" Percy growled at the weird flying creature. Peeves flew away but not before he dropped the walking sticks on top of poor Neville. Percy continued to bring the students along until they met a painting of a woman in a silky dress.

"Password?" the woman asked.

"Caput Draconis," replied Percy and the portrait swung out to reveal a hole in the wall. All the student's clambered their way into the hole. The Gryffindor common room looked extremely comfortable with its warm fire and it's soft velvet sofas.

Percy showed the first years the direction to their dorms but Amethyst wasn't paying attention. Her eyes slowly shut and she accidentally stumbled into Neville who was next to her.

"Sorry, I really need some sleep," she yawned.

"Same with me. Night, Amethyst," Neville replied.

"Goodnight, Neville," said Amethyst. As she began to walk to the dorms she was stopped by Neville's voice,

"Uh, Amethyst? The girls' dorms are the other way,"

"Oh right, thanks." Amethyst proceeded to walk in the other direction.

They would have much to talk about in the morning.

Amethyst Fae Goldstring was panicky and nervous. That was a sentence that came up too frequently in her life. Panicky and nervous were two words that could best describe her. While seemingly self-assured on the outside, Amethyst was cracking on the inside. She wasn't ready for this. Maybe she should stay at home and be homeschooled. Was that allowed?

"Amethyst? Oi, are you listening to me?" said her cousin. Amethyst immediately snapped out of her trance.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What were you saying, Tonks?" Amethyst replied. Her older cousin groaned.

"I was saying that you just have to push your trolley and run straight through the wall. And then your parents and I will follow after you." Tonks answered.

"Are you sure this is safe, Nymphadora? How do we walk through a wall?" Amethyst's father, Louis, asked. The worry in Louis' voice made Amethyst think too hard. What if she ran into the wrong wall? Now, the only thing that was in her mind was her just running smack right into a wall.

"You'll be right, the wall always works. And please call me Tonks; it's a much better name than Nymphadora." Tonks said to her uncle. Louis laughed but still looked unsure.

"It's extremely safe, dear. I used to always go through it when I would send Ted off to school," soothed Adele, Amethyst's mother, as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ready to go through the barrier?" questioned Adele. Amethyst nodded and pushed her trolley towards the wall. As she passed through it, she realized that she was no longer at the regular train station. The girl looked around in wonder as she observed the train station around her. There were many people bustling around her with trolleys and pets. She observed the people around her and she saw a boy showing his friends a tarantula and an old lady chastising a young boy. It was fun to think about how she would be going to school with all these interesting characters.

"Wotcher, Amethyst," said Tonks, suddenly appearing from the wall. "Move out of the way of the barrier." The muggleborn witch jostled her trolley through the crowd and made her way towards the train.

"I think it's time for you to get on the train. It's quarter to eleven and you need to be able to find a compartment," Adele told Amethyst. "So I guess this goodbye for now," Amethyst's mother engulfed her in a hug and held her tightly. "Take care of yourself and make some friends. And please do not get hurt. Ted used to always come back home with all sorts of injuries. Actually, now that I think about that was probably just him being extremely clumsy." The woman laughed softly and squeezed Amethyst even tighter.

"C'mon, Del. We need to say goodbye too," said Louis to his wife. Adele reluctantly let go of her daughter to let the others say goodbye."Have fun and do well in you clas-ACHOO!" Amethyst's father sneezed rather violently. "Sorry, there are so many owls here. My allergies are acting u-ACHOO! Try hard in your classes and please write to us as much as you can." Neither Amethyst nor Adele had the heart to tell him that all wizard mail was sent by owl. Louis hugged his daughter but unlike his wife, he did not try to nearly hug her to death.

Finally, it was time for Amethyst to say goodbye to her cousin.

"I'm gonna miss you, squirt. Please write to me as soon as you can. And if you're sorted into any house that's not Hufflepuff we will disown you," Tonks told Amethyst. The graveness in the Metamorphmagus' voice made Amethyst take her seriously. "I'm just joking," snorted Tonks, looking at Amethyst's panic-stricken face. "Any house should be proud to have you as one of its students." And with that, she hugged Amethyst lovingly.

"Mum, are you crying?" the young girl asked her mother who was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.

"Sorry, it's just that sending you off brings back all these memories of me sending Ted to Hogwarts. I would always cry and beg him to stay with me," replied Adele who then laughed and then leaned her head against her husband's shoulder but then regretted doing so because Louis sneezed yet again.

"I'm really going to miss you all and I promise to write to you!" Amethyst said to her parents. Amethyst grabbed Stanley, her potted plant that was sitting on her suitcase while Adele passed her her suitcase.

"Good luck," Tonks chirped.

"Thank you, I will definitely need it," Amethyst laughed. And with a final goodbye, she stepped onto a train. Now, this was a new territory for her. Where should she sit? What if she couldn't find a compartment to sit in? Amethyst walked down the aisle as she observed the people in the compartments. She then came to an empty compartment and decided to place her suitcase and plant away and stay there. Just as she was about to sit down, someone opened the compartment.

"Hi, I'm so sorry to bother you but could I sit here?" the girl asked tucking a strand of black hair into her bushy ponytail.

"Yeah, um, of course you can," Amethyst answered. The girl thanked her and tucked her suitcase away.

"I'm Rowan by the way; Rowan Avery," the girl introduced herself as she sat down in front of Amethyst. The muggleborn was glad that Rowan had decided to start a conversation. She had thought that they would've had to sit in awkward silence for all of the train ride.

"I'm Amethyst Goldstring. Are you a first year?" Amethyst inquired.

Rowan blushed, "Is it obvious?"

"Well, I figured that if this wasn't your first year at Hogwarts you would probably be sitting with your friends and not with someone you barely know," Amethyst answered.

"You've got a point. So I take it that this is your first year too?" questioned Rowan. Amethyst nodded and was about to say something but another person opened up the compartment door. This time it was a short boy who Amethyst recognized as the one who was being chastised by the old lady.

"Is there room for one more in here?" the boy asked. Rowan and Amethyst nodded and he took a seat next to the window. Suddenly, a knock comes from the window causing the two girls to jump in surprise. The boy hastily opens the window and Amethyst saw that it was the old lady from before.

"Neville, your toad!" the old lady yelled. For a lady who was quite small in stature the loud volume of her voice surprised Amethyst. The old lady passed the toad through the window and said, "Please do not lose him again. And make sure that your first year of Hogwarts is a good one,"

"I will, Gran," the boy replied.

"Good, I'll see you during the Christmas holidays,"

"Bye, Gran!" the boy bid is grandmother farewell and shut the window. He did this just on time because the train blew it's whistle and began to depart the station. Amethyst saw her parents and Tonks out the window and waved to them. She was really going to miss them. Even though Tonks had told her that Hogwarts was an amazing place she was still scared of what was going to happen there and Tonks had refused to tell her how students were sorted into houses so it would be a surprise for Amethyst.

"I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Neville Longbottom," the boy told the two girls.

"Amethyst Goldstring," the brunette hair girl stated.

"Rowan Avery," said the other girl. On hearing the black girl's name, Neville looked rather taken aback.

"Avery? As in the Avery family?" Neville asked.

"If you're talking about the family that is commonly linked to You-Know-Who then yes; I'm from that family. But I'm not like the rest of them. I know what they did was wrong and I plan on staying as far away from that as I can," Rowan replied rather coolly. Tonks had told Amethyst about You-Know-Who and his cult of Death Eaters and how Voldemort was killed by the Boy Who Lived.

There was an awkward silence in the compartment so Amethyst decided to try and break the ice.

"Do either of you know what house you want to be sorted into?" she asked the two first years. This seemed to ease the tension in the compartment.

"I'd like to be in Slytherin or Ravenclaw. A lot of the most successful witches and wizards have been in those houses. And of course, Merlin himself was a Slytherin," Rowan answered

"Well, Gran always says that Gryffindor is the best house and my parents were in Gryffindor but I don't know what house I would fit into," said Neville, "What about you?"

"I think all the houses are quite nice so I would be proud to be in any of them," she replied.

The trio started to talk to each other and they all started to feel more at ease in each other's company. They traded stories of they're families and laughed at each other's jokes. Amethyst found out a lot about the two other students. She found out that Rowan adored everything to do with Quidditch and that she had an older brother who used to go to Hogwarts and she found out that Neville was a plant lover like herself and that he was an only child who lived with his grandmother.

Unexpectedly, Neville's toad leapt out of his hands and hopped out of the compartment.

"Trevor!" Neville called.

"Do you want any help looking for him?" Amethyst offered.

"No, thank you. I think I'll be fine," Neville told her and with that, he dashed out in search of his toad.

"Look at the time, we've got half an hour until we reach Hogwarts. We should change into our uniforms, there are changing rooms near the centre of the train," Rowan said. Amethyst grabbed her uniform from her trunk and the two girls made their way to the changing rooms.

After they changed, they slowly walked back to their compartment.

"What's your wand made of?" Rowan asked as she watched Amethyst inspecting her wand.

"Cherrywood, dragon heartstring and it's fourteen inches," replied Amethyst showing Rowan her wand. It was a rather long wand with a pinkish gold hue and a light purple stone at the top. "What's yours like?"

Rowan pulled her wand out of her robe pocket "Laurelwood, unicorn hair and eleven inches," The wand was either black or an extremely dark brown colour but the top of it had been carved into a swirl shape and was gold.

They continued talking about wands when they got back to the compartment but stopped when Neville came back holding his toad.

"Oh good, you found your toad!" exclaimed Rowan.

"Yeah, I found him on the window of a compartment," Neville puffed. He was somewhat out of breath from looking around the train for Trevor. Luckily, he had had the help of a nice but extremely bossy girl who insisted on helping him or he might not have found his toad.

"You should go and change; we'll be there soon," Amethyst told him.

"That's a good idea," replied Neville who quickly grabbed his uniform and left the compartment.

When he returned, the train came to a halting stop.

"We're here," Amethyst whispered. She was extremely nervous yet very excited at the same time. "Do we bring our trunks with us?"

Rowan shook her head, "No, we leave all our stuff here and they'll be brought to the castle,"

Amethyst whispered a quick goodbye to Stanley and exited the compartment with the other two and then stepped out of the train. Amethyst was about to ask where they needed to but then a booming voice answered her question.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" The source of this voice came from a gigantic man with a very bushy beard.

The gigantic man lead the group of bumbling first years up a slender and precipitous stony path. With the darkness around the path it reminded Amethyst of a possible crime scene from the thriller films she would stay up watching late at night.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec. Jus' round this bend here," the bearded man called.

The curious first year all gasped in wonder. The path opened up to a dark and daunting lake but it was the castle that sat regally upon the mountain.

To call it magical would be an understatement. With turrets and towers, the castle reminded Amethyst of something from fairytales. It gave her goosebumps to look at it in its full glory against the backdrop of the many stars in the sky.

"No more'n four to a boat!" called the hairy man as he pointed to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. The first years jostled their way into the boats and Amethyst found herself in a boat with Neville and Rowan. The fleet smoothly drifted on as if they were mere paper boats in a bathtub. No one said a single word as they were much too engrossed in taking in the majestic castle.

Then, something grabbed Amethyst's hand that was placed on the edge of the boat and tried to pull her into the water. Amethyst attempted to tug her hand away from what seemed to be a reddish-purple coloured tentacle. The tentacle pulled her so hard that it almost tipped the entire boat. Rowan and Neville realized what was happening and rushed over to help her. The both of them grabbed her and with big pull the tentacle release it's grip on her arm and made the three of them fall back.

"What was that?" Amethyst whispered.

"It's the Giant Squid; it lives in the lake all year round," Rowan answered. All year round? Amethyst would definitely try to avoid the lake from now on.

"Heads down!" yelled the large man who was sitting in a boat at the front of the fleet. All the first immediately ducked their heads down as they passed through a curtain of ivy and were taken through what seemed to be an underground tunnel. They soon reached the end of the passage and they all stepped out of the boats and onto the rock and pebble-filled ground.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" the big hairy man asked Neville.

"Trevor!" Neville cried in joy.

"How do you keep losing him?" I questioned. Neville simply shrugged.

The man leads us up a large flight of stones steps to an enormous and grand door. He raised a fist which was probably the size of my head and knocked three times on the door.

The door opened to reveal a serious looking witch wearing emerald robes. Amethyst remembered her as Professor McGonagall, the witch that had come to explain Hogwarts to her muggle family. McGonagall opened up the to let the first years through the overwhelmingly large entrance hall that was so big it most likely could've held her house inside of it. McGonagall brought the anxious group of students into an empty chamber and started to explain how the four houses worked.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." The Hogwarts professor looked around at the students in disdain for they were anything but neat and tidy looking.

As McGonagall left the room what looked like 100 ghosts but in reality was probably only about twenty drifted in through a wall. Amethyst screamed in fright as she saw the translucent stark white figures above her.

"Move along now," said McGonagall's sharp voice as she returned to the room. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." She ordered the first years into a line and everyone did for it seemed that they all got the idea that the woman was not someone to mess with. She took them through the large double doors to another hall.

Amethyst couldn't even find the words to describe this hall. It was simply enchanting to look at the hundreds of thousands of candles floating mid-air. There seemed to be no ceiling as the stars shone like jewels above them.

Her thoughts were interrupted by McGonagall placing a ragged hat on a stool but it was what the hat did that startled her.

It started to sing:

 _"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuff are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _If you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

All the students and professors clapped at the end of his song and it tipped it's pointed top to the tables as if it were bowing to them.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment."When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A small girl walked up to the hat and placed it on her head. A couple seconds passed until the yelled,

"Hufflepuff!"

What must have been the Hufflepuff table clapped and cheered as the first sorted student made her way towards the table.

"Avery, Rowan!" McGonagall said. Rowan stepped out from behind Amethyst and walked nervously towards the stool and sat down. She placed the pointed hat on top of her head and gulped.

"Slytherin!"

Amethyst could see Rowan give a sigh of relief and smiled as she walked to the cheering table of silver and green-clad students. The sorting went on like this for awhile until Amethyst's name was called out after newly sorted Ravenclaw, Anthony Goldstein.

"Goldstring, Amethyst!" called McGonagall. Amethyst's heart was beating hard against her chest. She sat down on the stool and placed the hat on her head and it drooped down to cover her eyes.

"Hmmm," the Sorting Hat mused, "You seem like a good character. You've got a good amount of brains in this head and it looks like you're quite ambitious about your future. But what's this? You seem to have some undiscovered courage and that holds quite a lot of potential. It better be... Gryffindor!"

Amethyst grinned while the Gryffindor table cheered and applauded her. The sorting continued and was uneventful apart from Neville forgetting to remove the hat after being sorted into Gryffindor and turning a bright red as went to sit down next to Amethyst and then everyone including Amethyst's interest was piqued when Potter, Harry was called. The name sent whispers down the hall for everyone knew who he was. Harry Potter was eventually sorted into Gryffindor and Amethyst knew that the house wouldn't be too peaceful with him in her house.

Finally, the last student was sorted into Slytherin and Albus Dumbledore stood up in front of the entire school.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Amethyst was confused at hearing such an odd speech but no else seemed bothered so Amethyst simply just moved on from it and set her eyes on the mountains of food. She had been so busy thinking about other things that she had forgotten how hungry she was. She immediately tucked into the food around her.

She didn't speak much to the people around her apart from discussing classes with Neville who she was beginning to take a liking to. Soon, the food around began to disappear and Dumbledore stood up yet again. Amethyst braced herself for him to say something that sounded like a quote from the Mad Hatter but instead, Dumbledore started to say something that made sense.

"Ahern - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well. I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

The headmaster said the last sentence so gravely that Amethyst was not sure if it was a joke. And even if it was, not that many people laughed.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore as he gave a small flick with his wand and glittering gold ribbon came out-out and twirled itself into words. Tonks hadn't told her about any school song. Amethyst hated singing for she was extremely tone deaf. "Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

The entire school started singing the song out of time and out of tune which made Amethyst smile. When almost everyone had finished they still had to wait for two red-haired twins from Gryffindor who sang the school song to the tune of a sad funeral march.

After the two had finished, Dumbledore bid the student farewell and sent them all to bed. A prefect named Percy told all the first years to follow him out the hall and up a marble staircase. Maybe it was the droopiness in her eyelids that made her disorientated but to Amethyst, the way to the dorms seemed quite difficult as Percy had had to lead them through all these sliding panels and tapestries.

Amethyst was basically half asleep until an odd little man swooped down near her head.

"Go away, Peeves or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" Percy growled at the weird flying creature. Peeves flew away but not before he dropped the walking sticks on top of poor Neville. Percy continued to bring the students along until they met a painting of a woman in a silky dress.

"Password?" the woman asked.

"Caput Draconis," replied Percy and the portrait swung out to reveal a hole in the wall. All the student's clambered their way into the hole. The Gryffindor common room looked extremely comfortable with its warm fire and it's soft velvet sofas.

Percy showed the first years the direction to their dorms but Amethyst wasn't paying attention. Her eyes slowly shut and she accidentally stumbled into Neville who was next to her.

"Sorry, I really need some sleep," she yawned.

"Same with me. Night, Amethyst," Neville replied.

"Goodnight, Neville," said Amethyst. As she began to walk to the dorms she was stopped by Neville's voice,

"Uh, Amethyst? The girls' dorms are the other way,"

"Oh right, thanks." Amethyst proceeded to walk in the other direction.

They would have much to talk about in the morning.


	2. Chapter 1

**Five years later**

Neville and Amethyst were waiting in the dark with nothing but a lamp to brighten the room. Amethyst kept on glancing at her watch hoping that the time would go faster but every time she did take a look at the watch she felt that time just kept on going slower. They were sitting at the dining table of Amethyst's cousin's house waiting for the return of Nymphadora Tonks.

"When do you think she'll be back?" Neville asked. Amethyst took another glance at the clock; it's was half-past eleven.

"Soon I hope," yawned Amethyst as she poured what was left of her water into her pot plant next to her.

"CRACK!" The two of them heard a sound followed by some whispers from the living room.

"Who's that with her?" Neville asked.

"That might not be her," Amethyst whispered. The alleged return of You-Know-Who had made her quite jumpy about everything.

They both grabbed their wands from their pockets and prepared to duel. They slowly stood up as they heard footsteps come into the kitchen.

And then someone switched the light on...

"EXPELLIA-" yelled Amethyst.

"Don't fire!" called a male's voice as it interrupted Amethyst. The girl realized that the people in front of her were none other than Tonks and Professor Lupin. "Put down your wands," Neville and Amethyst both slumped back into their chairs.

"Wotcher, why are you two still awake?" Tonks questioned.

"We could ask you the same thing. And why are you here, Professor? " said Amethyst looking at the scar face man.

"There's no need to call me professor anymore, Remus will do just fine," Lupin replied but he still did not answer the girl's question.

"Where have you been?" Neville asked the Metamorphmagus.

"I can't say," replied Tonks.

Neville and Amethyst glanced at each other.

"Why not?" they said unison.

"It's not important and you don't need to know," interjected Remus as he sat down and pulled a chair for Tonks.

"Nymph, Neville and I have been here for nearly two weeks and nearly most days you leave during the evening and come back late at night," Amethyst said ignoring Remus.

"How do you know what time I come home?" asked Nymphadora.

"You're not the quietest person, Tonks," Neville reminded the Auror.

"I guess that is true," Tonks said as she smiled.

"Are you seeing someone? To be more specific are seeing Remus?" Amethyst blurted.

"No, why would you ever think that?" queried Tonks as both she and Lupin turned red.

"We've heard a man's voice down year a few times and you did just try to sneak in here with him. " Neville answered.

"This is not what you think it is," said the Remus. Neville and Amethyst glanced at each other again.

"Then tell us what it really then? Just tell us what's really going on so we don't need to come up with all these ridiculous ideas," persuaded Amethyst.

"Trust me, Amethyst came up with the craziest ideas," laughed Neville.

"Hey, yours were crazy too!" Amethyst replied indignantly, elbowing her best friend softly in the ribs.

"Not as crazy as yours..."

"Whatever, we're getting off topic. We still want to know what's going on," Amethyst tried to steer the conversation back to its original topic. Tonks groaned at having to continue the conversation and put her head in her hands.

"What is with everyone wanting to know what's happening?" Tonks asked herself, her voice muffled by her hands. "First Harry and the twins and the other two and now the both of you. Now, I feel like it's a Gryffindor thing," After, quick moment she realized what she had said, "Wait, that's not what I mea-"

She and Remus tried to fix up her small slip by saying that it didn't mean anything but it was too late. As Amethyst and Neville started to interrupt them

"Harry? Harry Potter? Did you see him tonight? Where is he?"

"The other two? Is that Ron and Hermione? Are they all staying together?"

"Did they get to know what's going on? If they get to know we should too!"

"Who else is with them? Is that where you've been going?"

"SILENCIO!" Tonks casted the silencing charm on the two of them. She and Remus turned away from the two silenced Hogwarts and started to discuss something in low whispers. To Amethyst, they seemed to be arguing about something and this continued for a few minutes.

They turned back towards them and Tonks said, "Now, we are going to explain everything and I'm going to lift the charm but if you say a word I will silence you again and I won't lift it until I'm done,"

"You know, my parents think you're looking after us. Silencing us is not looking after u-" Amethyst started to say when Tonks lifted the charm.

"No, talking!" Tonks interrupted her."We're going to explain everything to you and you are going to listen. You are not to discuss this with anyone and you are not allowed to tell a single person. Agreed?" The two Gryffindors nodded in agreement.

"I'm apart of something called The Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret society of people who fight He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his Death Eaters. It was originally created in the 70's when The First Wizarding War was beginning. I obviously wasn't in it back then but now as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's planned failed at the Triwizard Tournament Dumbledore has decided to bring the Order back together along with a few new members." Tonks informed them.

"Didn't the plan work? He is back after all," said Amethyst.

"Yes, he did come back but that was only part of his plan. Only he and his death eaters were supposed to know that he was back but because Harry Potter managed to escape, Dumbledore knew almost immediately of his return and Dumbledore was the only person that Voldemort was ever afraid of." He paused as the other three winced at the name. "Because of Harry's survival Dumbledore has requested that there should be at least one member watching him at all times," answered Remus

"Are you stalking him?" Neville asked.

"We're not stalking him, it's more like being his bodyguard that he has no idea about," Tonks replied.

"Is that all the Order has been doing? Just watching Harry?" Amethyst inquired.

"We're setting up our defences so we can stop as much as Voldemort's plan as we can." said Remus.

"And his plan is?" asked Neville.

"Dumbledore reckons that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wants to rebuild his army so we've been spreading word around and convince people but it's easier said than done," informed Tonks.

"How is it hard?" questioned Amethyst.

"Have either of you read the Daily Prophet recently?" Remus asked the two. Amethyst shook her head while Neville said,

"Gran canceled our subscription a few weeks ago. She said something about it telling lies,"

"Ah, good on her. It's a smart idea once you look at all the shit they've been spewing out recently," Tonks laughed. "Nearly everyone working at the Ministry and the Daily Prophet is an absolute fuc-"

"I think what Tonks means to say is that the Ministry of Magic is influencing the media so they can make things looks as if they have everything under control. The Ministry is terrified of what they don't understand. They've had over a decade without an incident and now all of sudden the person they fear most is back. They'll lie to reporters about what's happening just so they can keep saying that Dumbledore is a liar," Remus interjected.

"Why? Why are they so anti-Dumbledore?" Amethyst asked incredulously. She had thought that everyone would believe Dumbledore for he was a very respected person.

"Because they're all a bunch scared arse motherfu-" the Auror started.

"Again, what I think Tonks is meaning say is that apart from being scared of You-Know-Who, the Ministry is scared of Dumbledore. To be more specific; Cornelius Fudge is scared of Dumbledore. He thinks that Dumbledore is trying to steal Minister of Magic position," Remus interjected once again.

"Gran told me that Dumbledore's be offered the role three times. Why would he want it now?" Neville said.

"Exactly, Fudge is absolutely insane. He thinks Dumbledore is causing trouble just for the laughs. He's paid the media to show the reality that he wants and makes sure that everything written about Dumbledore is bad. He's so wrapped in his lies that it's driven him crazy," Tonks said.

"We are trying our very best," Remus told the two as he looked at their worried faces, "But it's hard. We have to think about people that are a part of the Order and how it could affect their lives."

"But there has to be more you can do. There has to be more ways to stop him," said Amethyst.

"Like Remus said, we're doing everything we can. We're looking after Harry, recruiting more people and we're close to figuring out what weapon You-Know-Who is looking for." Tonks said and then groaned as she realized that she had slipped up again.

"What weapon?" asked Neville.

"We don't know a lot about it. All we know is that it's bad and it's something new. Something Voldemort didn't have last time," Remus said quietly, rubbing his hands against his face.

Neville and Amethyst glanced at each other yet again and asked,

"Can we joi-"

"You cannot join. The Order of the Phoenix is for those out of Hogwarts," Remus quickly interrupted them.

"We may not be "Boy Who Lived" or the best witch or wizard but we really want to help fight against You-Know-Who," said Amethyst.

"We didn't even let Harry join so there's no need for us to let the both of you join," Remus told them. "And the best way you can help is to stay out of it. The is not your battle to fight in,"

"I think that's enough for one night. It's time for the both of you to go to sleep and I don't want to hear another peep from the both of you," Tonks ordered. Amethyst and Neville reluctantly agreed and went upstairs.

As Amethyst sat in her room trying to listen to Tonks and Remus who were still downstairs talking, Neville quietly snuck into her room and sat on her bed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I had to tell you something. I couldn't wait until tomorrow," he replied.

"What is it?"

"My parents were actually in the Order,"

"Really? How do you know?" the girl inquired.

"I remember my Gran explaining to me about what happened to my parents. I remember saying that they were tortured because they refused to give Death Eaters information about the order," he said looking down.

"Neville, we will fight against the sort of people that did this to your parents and we will get justice for them," Amethyst told him and she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't think I can't hear you! The walls of this house are very thin! GO TO SLEEP!" Tonks' voice yelled from upstairs. The two Gryffindors laughed quietly at the sound of Tonks yelling at them.

"Night, Ams." Neville said as he walked towards the door.

"Goodnight, Nevs," replied Amethyst.

The next morning, Amethyst was awoken by a jolt and saw her cousin's face staring at her.

"Wake up!" Tonks said loudly.

"God, what do you want?" asked Amethyst groggily as she sat up.

"I'm taking you and Neville somewhere," replied Tonks.

"Where?"

"You'll see. Now, get up, get dressed and go wake Neville up. Breakfast is downstairs," Tonks said and she left the room a perplexed Amethyst.

As confused as she was, she still got up and got ready for the day.

"Neville? Can I come in?" she asked, waiting at his door. The boy opened the door while still in his pajamas and yawned,

"Hi, you're up early,"

"Yeah, Tonks woke me up. She said that you needed to get ready because apparently, we're going somewhere,"

"Oh okay, I'll be out in a minute," he shut the door and Amethyst lent against the door as she waited. Her eyes drooped because she had not gotten that much sleep that night for she had stayed up thinking about what Remus and Tonks had told her.

Suddenly, the door opened up and made her fall backward onto poor Neville which caused the two to end up on the ground.

"Ugh, sorry about that. Leaning on the door was not a good idea," Amethyst said as she stood up and helped her friend up.

The two walked downstairs to be surprised at the sight Remus sitting at the dining table.

"We didn't know you were coming for breakfast," said Neville.

"Well, I actually stayed here for the night," he answered, "Tonks and I had a few things to sort out about your transportation for today and recently I've been staying at headquarters which is getting quite full of people, "

"Who's staying there?" asked Amethyst.

"All but two of the Weasley's, Hermione, we just got Harry in there last night and members always keep coming in and out," Remus replied.

"Why did you just get Harry in last night?"

"You always did like to ask questions," the werewolf said, referencing his time as Amethyst's professor, "Always so curious."

"Sometimes you're much too curious for your own good." Tonks said, coming into the kitchen with a pot of coffee. "Harry used magic in front of a muggle for self-defence purposes and it's landed him in some hot water with the Ministry so we decided that bringing him there would be for the best."

"So where are going today?" Neville asked.

"We are going to the Order's headquarters," Tonks replied.

"What happened "This is not your battle to fight in."?" Amethyst inquired.

"We're not bringing you there to join the Order. We're bringing you there because we have a special job for you," Remus said.

"Wait, our special job is cleaning?" groaned Amethyst as Tonks explained what the special job was as the four of them stepped in into No.12 Grimmauld Place.

"No, it's more like helping to make this place a more habitable for humans," Tonks told her. The four stepped into a dusty and messy living room with an extremely weird smell.

"Ya know, I expected the headquarters to be much grander and a lot less odd smelling," Amethyst said to Neville as she walked around examining the place.

"I guess that's why we're helping to clean this place up." Neville replied, his face turned away from her as he looked at a painting of a strange looking animal.

"Ah, Molly is going to be glad that she has more helpers," said a male voice from right behind Amethyst.

Amethyst turned around to see Sirius Black in the doorway. She gave a blood curdling scream and promptly punched him in the face.


	3. Chapter 2

"Again, I am so sorry. I had no idea that you were on our side because the last time I heard about you, you were a mass murderer on the loose," she apologized as Mrs Weasley fixed up Sirius' nose. Amethyst's scream had brought Mrs Weasley, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins into the living room. All of which were looking rather peculiar wearing handkerchiefs around their nose and mouth.

"It really is just fine. I just want to know where you learnt how to punch that hard," Sirius laughed.

"My dad is a police officer; he's been teaching me self-defence ever since I was young." explained Amethyst.

"Well, tell him that everything he's teaching you is working. You actually broke my nose," replied Sirius.

"So what are the two of you doing here?" Hermione asked Neville and Amethyst, raising her handkerchief up so her voice would not be muffled.

"We're here to help clean this place up," stated Neville.

"Thank god for that. It's going to be all hands on deck for a week or two so we can make this place a lot more livable," Mrs Weasley said, turning around and embraced Neville and Amethyst to both of their surprises. They had only known the woman since the end of the school year when they sat next to her at the third task of the Triwizard Tournament and had spoken to her. "It's good to see the both of you. Come along, we were just about to clear out the Doxys from the drawing room,"

"I'm are heading out now, Molly. Can you handle these two?" Tonks said motioning towards Amethyst and Neville.

"Oh, it'll be fine. Goodbye, dear," Molly replied.

"Wait, where are yo-" started Amethyst.

"Order business; you don't need to know anything else," her cousin said and apparated away but then apparated back and knocked over a lamp. "Please do not let Molly know that I told everything about the Order of the Phoenix or she will kill me," she whispered to Amethyst and Neville and then disappeared again.

Mrs Weasley lead the Hogwarts student's through the house and into the olive green drawing room where several spray bottles sat on a table.

"Everyone, grab a bottle. It's Doxycide so it should get rid of them all," Mrs Weasley said and she handed Amethyst and Neville cloths to wrap around their faces. "As I was saying before, I've never seen an infestation this bad - what that house-elf's been doing for the last ten years -"

"Kreacher's really old, he probably couldn't manage -" Hermione started as she gave what looked like a disapproving look towards Mrs Weasley.

"You'd be surprised what Kreacher can manage when he wants to, Hermione," said Sirius coming into the room with a cleaned up nose. When he started coolly conversing with Molly Weasley, Amethyst turned to Hermione and asked,

"Who's Kreacher?"

"He's the house-elf that works here. Everyone is much too hard on him and he's very misunderstood," the bushy haired girl replied.

"Misunderstood, my arse, Hermione," scoffed Ron. "Tell me, how many people have joined spew?"

"For the last time, it's S.P.E.W not spew. We actually currently have five but we have six if you include Dobby. And two of those members are Neville and Amethyst so I'm obviously not the only one that realizes that there is an obvious injustice in the treatment of house-elves," Hermione huffed and then walked away from Ron.

"She scared you into doing it, didn't she?" Ron asked Neville and Amethyst and they both nodded.

"I thought she would've hexed me if didn't I didn't say yes," Neville replied.

"She is absolutely terrifying when she puts her mind to something," Amethyst chimed in.

A noisy and echoing doorbell rang, triggering something to start a series of jarring yells.

"I keep telling them not to ring the doorbell!" Sirius said, sounding rather irritated as he rushed away from the drawing room.

"What's that sound?" Amethyst asked.

"That would be a painting of the ugliest woman to ever live," answered Fred.

"It's painting of Sirius' mother. It starts screaming if it's bothered. I'm surprised you didn't set her off when you screamed," George elaborated.

"Close the door, please, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley to Harry who was standing closest to the door.

Mrs Weasley turned her attention away from the yells from the painting and the conversation from the front door and focused on Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to household Pests that was on the couch. Amethyst smiled as she remembered how Gilderoy Lockhart had been such a terrible professor and had no idea how to teach a class.

"Right, you lot, you need to be careful, because Doxys bite and their teeth are venomous. I've got a bottle of antidote here, but I'd rather nobody needed it." said Mrs Weasley as she stood in front of the window, indicating, to a green bottle sitting on the table. Amethyst lifted up the cloth covering her nose and mouth,

"Wait, what happens if the Doxys bite you?" Amethyst worriedly inquired.

"Well, if you get the antidote on time you'll just get this painful burning feeling in your blood," answered Mrs Weasley.

"And if we don't get the antidote?" Amethyst asked.

"Then you'll still get the burning feeling but you'll most likely pass out for a while. But you don't need to worry about that, it's unlikely that you'll get bitten," Molly reassured the girl. "Now, I'm going to open the curtain and when I say so, I want all of you to start to squirting the Doxycide. It should immediately immobilize the Doxys and then you can just chuck them into the bucket,"

The group of students all stepped closer to the window.

"All right - squirt!" Mrs Weasley quickly opened the curtain and then moved back to stand in line with the others.

Them opening up the curtain and squirting Doxycide at them, had obviously angered the creatures for they all started flying towards them. They were quite ugly little things. They had small hairy bodies, beetle-like wings, bulging eyes and a frog like a mouth with two rows of sharp teeth. Amethyst began to paralyze a few of the Doxys but then gave a yelp of surprise when she felt one getting tangled up in her hair. Luckily for her, Ginny realized that the venomous creature was caught in the poor girl's hair and squirted the Doxycide onto the creature causing it to fall to the ground like a doll. An ugly doll but a doll nonetheless.

"Thanks, Ginny," Amethyst said in relief.

"No problem," replied Ginny. "You know, I'm really glad that you and Neville are here,"

"Really? Why's that?" asked Amethyst suspiciously.

"Last night, the others were allowed to find out about everything to do with this Order thing and I wasn't allowed to listen," Ginny said indignantly. "So now that you and Neville are here, I'm not the only that's being kept in the dark. I've got a fair idea from all the snippets I've heard but all three of us could try and figure out what's going on,"

"Um, sure. Of course, we should do that. I really want to know what's going on," Amethyst lied, plastering a fake smile on her face as she scrunched up her nose.

"You already know everything, don't you?" Ginny asked. "You're a terrible liar. Don't think I can't tell; you scrunch up your nose when you lie. I realized that last year when you told Ron that his dress robes didn't look too bad,"

"I don't scrunch up my nose when I lie," Amethyst said, scrunching up her nose.

"Tell me Amethyst, do you know?" hissed Ginny. Amethyst looked around to make sure that Mrs Weasley wasn't listening.

"Yes, yes, we do. Tonks and Remus explained it to us last night because we wouldn't shut up about it," whispered Amethyst.

"We? Us? Does that mean Neville knows?" Ginny interrogated and Amethyst nodding. "Bloody hell, basically everyone but me knows. Wait, can you tell me?"

"What? No! I promised not to tell anyone and that includes you. Why can't you get one of the others to tell you?"

"I tried to get Hermione to tell me last night and I tried to get Fred and George to tell me this morning but Mum is keeping a very good eye on us and they're all scared that she'll kill them if they tell me,"

"I can't tell you, Ginny," Amethyst said.

"I'm going to find out sooner or later, Amethyst," Ginny said and she walked off to possibly go and interrogate the others about the Order of the Phoenix.

The matter of getting rid of the Doxys took them until a bit past noon. During their time of exterminating the Doxys, Amethyst had warned Neville that Ginny may try and get answers out of him.

Mrs Weasley gestured to the silvery cabinets with snake-like patterns on them and said, "I think we'll tackle those after lunch." Amethyst took a closer look at the cabinet and saw that it was filled with the oddest of things. It was crammed with jewelry boxes, daggers and a range of silverware. Her observations were interrupted by the echoing doorbell. As soon as Mrs Weasley went answer it, everyone rushed to the window to see who it was.

"Mundungus!" said Hermione. "What's he brought all those cauldrons for?"

"Probably looking for a safe place to keep them," said Harry. "Isn't that what he was doing the night he was supposed to be tailing me? Picking up dodgy cauldrons?"

"Yeah, you're right!" said Fred, as the front door opened; Mundungus heaved his cauldron through it and disappeared from view. "Blimey, Mum won't like that..."

"Who's this Mundungus person?" question Amethyst.

"He's a crook," Neville answered. Everyone around him looked surprised at this knowledge so he elaborated. "Gran's reported him to the Ministry a few times,"

"Hm, makes sense. Mum's always yelling at him for trying to sell some shady stuff here," Ginny said. Right at this point, Mrs Weasley started yelling which startled them all.

"WE ARE NOT RUNNING A HIDEOUT FOR STOLEN GOODS!" Mrs Weasley's voice exploded from downstairs. Amethyst found it hard to believe that the warm and friendly woman was able to get so angry.

"- COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE, AS IF WE HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITHOUT YOU DRAGGING STOLEN CAULDRONS INTO THE HOUSE -"

"She must be extremely mad," Neville whispered to Amethyst.

"You don't say," she replied.

"The idiots are letting her get into her stride," said George, shaking his head. "You've got to head her off early otherwise she builds up a head of steam and goes on for hours."

"You're obviously speaking from experience," Amethyst commented.

"Course, Fred and I have learnt that trick for the best," George replied.

As Sirius' mother began screaming again which drowned out Mrs Weasley's screams, George went to shut the door but was stopped by the entrance of a house-elf wearing something that looked like an old ragged pillowcase. Its skin was shriveled like a prune and its eyes were watery and bloodshot.

"... smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my mistress's house, oh, my poor mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let into her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh, the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do..." the house-elf was talking to himself as if Amethyst and the others were not even present.

"Why is he talking to himself?" asked Neville.

"It's just this thing that he does. He's always lurking around the house talking to himself," Ginny replied.

Fred shut the door and said quite loudly "Hello, Kreacher,"

The house-elf gave an exaggerated and fake sound of surprise and turned towards them with a face of disgust.

"Kreacher did not see young master," Kreacher lied and bowed to Fred. "Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is." Kreacher said to the ground.

"Sorry?" said George. "Didn't catch that last bit."

Kreacher bowed towards George. "Kreacher said nothing, young master." and then again he muttered to himself. "And there's its twin, unnatural little beasts they are."

"He does know that we can hear him, right?" inquired Amethyst.

"Nobody's sure. The poor thing's been living all alone for so long,"

"... and there's the Mudblood, standing there bold as brass, oh, if my mistress knew, oh, how she'd cry, and there are new people, Kreacher doesn't know their names. What are they doing here?Kreacher doesn't know. How Kreacher's mistress would cry if she saw how these people of filth have infiltrated her grand place,"

"Kreacher, meet Neville Longbottom, Amethyst Goldstring and Harry Potter," Hermione said kindly.

Kreacher seemed furious at the way Hermione was talking to him.

"The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher's mistress saw him in such company, oh, what would she say -" Kreacher kept muttering to himself about how his mistress would not be pleased.

"Don't call her a Mudblood!" Ginny and Ron yelled at Kreacher.

"Aren't you a rude little thing? She was just trying to be nice to you; which is more than you deserve. It seems to me that you do not like any of us and you're obsessed with your mistress but there is absolutely no need for any use of that word," Amethyst stated, obviously quite mad at the use of such derogatory term. A term that had haunted her ever since Pansy Parkinson had used it against her so long ago.

"Must be another Mudblood," Kreacher said to Amethyst but still looking down. "Quick to be offended by such word. Kreacher can smell the dirt on her,"

Amethyst was about to retaliate but Neville pulled her back and shook his head. Amethyst continued to glare at the house-elf.

"It really doesn't matter," Hermione whispered. "He not in his right mind, he's been locked up for so long, he doesn't know what he's say-"

"Doesn't know what he's saying, my arse. He knows what he's saying, Hermione," Fred interrupted. At this point, basically all of them were glaring at house-elf for using such insulting words but Kreacher did not care for he had already turned his attention to Harry Potter.

"Is it true? Is it Harry Potter? Kreacher can see his scar, it must be true, that's the boy who stopped the Dark Lord. Kreacher's mistress always did think that what the Dark Lord was right. Kreacher wonders how he did it -"

Amethyst had to agree with Kreacher on this one. She was still unsure of how Harry had survived that night.

George asked Kreacher what he was doing in the drawing room.

"Kreacher is simply doing what he is supposed to. He is cleaning is mistress' place," At Kreacher's statement someone from behind them scoffed,

"A likely story,"

Kreacher threw himself at Sirius' feet much to the disgust of the man.

"Oh, stand up straight. What are you really up to Kreacher?" the man irritably.

"As Kreacher already said, he is simply cleaning his place. Kreacher lives to serve and be devoted to the Noble House of Black-"

"Black is right and it's getting blacker every day. The place is filthy," Sirius said. Sirius continued to insult Kreacher until he sent the muttering elf away.

Sirius lead the group of Hogwarts students over to a tapestry. It was old and yellowing but the golden thread glinted in the light that showed the interconnected family tree. All of them examined the tapestry and Harry realized that Sirius was absent from the family tree but Amethyst was not paying attention to Sirius' explanation. She had realized that there was a burnt face on the tapestry. The entire face had been charred but part of the name was still visible.

 _-dromeda_

Was that Aunt Andromeda? Amethyst traced the thread with her finger and saw that it was connected to Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy.

 _Bellatrix Lestrange_

Amethyst knew that name. Neville had mentioned it to her back in the third year. On the day that Neville had finally explained what had really happened to his parents. If the burnt face was Andromeda, then why hadn't she ever mentioned her sisters?

"Uh, Sirius? Is this Andromeda?" Amethyst asked, pointing to the charred circle.

"Yes, it is," replied Sirius.

"Oh okay, I didn't know the both of you were related," said Amethyst.

"She was my favourite cousin but then again the others were Deatheaters," Sirius said.

"Were - were your parents Death Eaters as well?" Harry asked. Amethyst turned her attention back to the tapestry. Neville walked over to her and stood by her.

"What are you looking at?" he whispered.

"That," she replied pointing to the line connecting Andromeda and her two sisters. The two stared in silence at it and Amethyst leant her head against Neville's shoulder.

"Lunch," called Mrs Weasley's voice and they all hurried off to get something to eat.

Amethyst plastered a smile on her face but the thought of Bellatrix lingered in her mind.


	4. Chapter 3

After lunch, Mrs Weasley got them back to work and they started to clean the cabinets

"Hey, have you heard from Rowan recently?" Amethyst asked Neville as she struggled to remove a vase that seemed to have stuck itself.

"Um, I got a few letters from her at the start of the holidays but she stopped sending them after a while," Neville replied sniffing at some strange powder that was in a glass container and then retched at the smell.

"Same, she just stopped replying. You don't think she's in trouble, do you?" Amethyst finally managed to loosen the vases grip on the cabinet and she flipped it around to realize that it had little claw feet. She placed it into the box next to her where it sunk its claws into the cardboard.

"I dunno, her parents are really strict. Maybe they're just not letting her write to us," Neville replied. "They're not really our biggest fans,"

"They've never been our biggest fan but Rowan has always been able to write to us. I've continued to write to her but she's just not answering," said Amethyst. She bit her thumbnail in worry, a habit that she had never been able to grow out of.

"I guess... Bloody hell, now you've made me worry about her and stop biting your nails," Neville said, pushing Amethyst's hand away from her mouth, a habit he had started when he realized how often she bit her nails.

"Sorry, you know I do it when I'm anxious and I'm basically always anxious," Amethyst grabbed the little jar from his hands and placed it into the box. "I mean, Rowan's tough; she files her nails until they're really pointy and I feel like it would hurt if she scratched,"

"It does, she once poked me," Neville replied.

"You know what? I'm just going to leave it. With everything going on, maybe her parents are just restricting her. She'll be alright," Amethyst said, reassuring herself.

"You're still going to write more letters to her, aren't you?" Neville said.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm totally going to write to her again. I can't help it, I need answers," Amethyst picked up a silver music box and wound it up. She opened it up to and heard and tinkling song.

The tune made her incredibly dizzy. All the talking around her was blocked out and the only thing she could hear was the music box.

"Amethyst, what are you staring at?" Hermione asked, looking over her shoulder at the music box. Amethyst did not answer for she was still enchanted by the music box. Soon everyone was crowding around Amethyst while the music made them feel like drifting to sleep.

Suddenly, Ginny slammed the lid of the music box shut. They all shook their heads and snapped out of their trance.

"Thank you, Ginny. Who knows what would've happened if we had continued to listen to that box," said Mrs Weasley.

"What was that?" asked Amethyst, still holding the closed music box.

"It seems to be some sort of box that makes you drowsy. I'll take it," said Sirius, grabbing the music box from Amethyst's hands. "Merlin knows what my mother used this for,"

After the music box incident, they all went back to cleaning the cabinet.

"Amethyst, Amethyst, is it true? Do you and Neville actually know about the Order stuff?" Hermione whispered, making sure that Mrs Weasley couldn't hear them.

"Yeah it is, how do you know?" Amethyst asked.

"Ginny told me. She's still mad that no one's told her anything," replied Hermione.

"Yeah, I know. She tried to get me to tell her about it earlier," said Amethyst.

"Did she really? Are you going to tell her?" Hermione inquired.

"No, of course not. We've been sworn to secrecy," replied Amethyst.

A few days and a few unanswered letters to Rowan passed and it was the day of Harry's hearing.

"Has Harry already left?" Neville asked when Tonks dropped them off at Grimmauld place.

"Yeah, he left about an hour ago," Tonks yawned, pushing her currently blonde hair out of her eyes. "Don't worry 'bout him; he'll be fine,"

Mrs Weasley soon set them all to work to busy themselves from thinking about how Harry's fate was currently being decided. Mrs Weasley had split them all up and spread them around the house. Fred and George were clearing out a bedroom, Ron, Hermione and Neville were in the living room exterminating chizpurfles (small crab-like that feed off magic) and to Amethyst's despair, she and Ginny were in the attic removing the all the antiques and knick-knacks. She had been able to avoid the girl for the past few days but she felt if she spent too much time around Ginny then she would crack and tell her everything.

"Are you excited to go back to Hogwarts?" asked Ginny when they were in the attic. Amethyst knew that Ginny was just warming her up and then she would begin the interrogation.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and there's always Quidditch but after the Triwizard Tournament I feel like it's going to be different," replied Amethyst.

"Same, with everything that the Daily Prophet's been saying, there are probably going to be some idiots that don't believe Harry and Dumbledore," said Ginny, placing what looked like a stuffed bear but with pointy teeth into a box.

"Yeah, you're right about that. God knows what sort of things people will be saying," Amethyst grabbed a glass flask filled with some sort of blue liquid and squinted into the glass.

"Speaking of You-Know-Who and what's been going on, why don't you tell me what you got to find out a few nights ago,"

"We weren't even talking about You-Know-Who!"

"Well, we were talking about Harry, Dumbledore and what happened last year and you can't really talk about all those without thinking of You-Know-Who," Ginny stated, shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh, that's not true," Amethyst tried to deny it but it was true. Nowadays, when Harry's name was mentioned all everyone could think was the alleged return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

"It is true and you know it is. And what I need to know is what is going on," insisted Ginny.

"I can't tell you, Ginny. I've promised not to tell anyone," replied Amethyst, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Amethyst, you know what that man did to me during my first year. He used me and caused me so much pain. Now's he's back and I have the right to know what's going on," Ginny pleaded.

"Bloody hell, why does that have to be such a good reason?" Amethyst muttered to herself. "I can't believe you're using that against me. You know I still feel bad for telling you that you should start writing in a diary,"

"Please, Amethyst,"

"Why can't you guilt trip someone else into telling you?" Amethyst begged.

"Mum is watching me like a hawk. She's making sure that the others have no chance of telling me anything. That's why I'm in the attic with you and not Ron or Hermione. She doesn't know that you know. She thinks that you haven't been told so you can't tell me anything. But you have been told and you can tell me." Ginny said.

"Fine, I'll tell you," Amethyst finally gave in.

"I really owe you one. Thank you so much, Amethyst," Ginny bounded over to the girl and hugged her.

"You can tell anyone or else Nymph will kill me and then your mum will kill Nymph," Amethyst told Ginny.

"I can imagine her now," Ginny said. "How dare you tell those two! I thought it would just be Harry and the others. Now they've gone and told Ginny. Soon every student of Hogwarts will know!" Ginny did a scarily good impression of Mrs Weasley as Amethyst laughed.

"Okay, all Nevs and I learnt is that this place is the headquarters of a secret society called the Order of the Phoenix. It was created during the First Wizarding War and it's been brought back together because of what Harry saw in the graveyard. Everyone in it is trying to spread the word about You-Know-Who's return and prepare people for the worst. They're hoping to recruit more people for the Order. And they're also trying to protect some sort of weapon that You-Know-Who wants but didn't have last time," Amethyst informed Ginny.

"What sort of weapon?" asked Ginny.

"Dunno, we weren't told,"

Ginny muttered furiously under her breath. "We already got most of that from what we've overheard. Apart from that weapon part of it. Maybe I could try figure out what that is,"

Soon the hours past and all the talk about the Order was put to rest and the girls began to talk about more trivial things such as Quidditch and classes. Despite neither of them being particularly crazy about them the girls even found themselves talking about boys.

"So are you Michael Corner a thing?" asked Amethyst, placing a music box into a box, wisely choosing not wind it up considering what happened last time.

"I guess you could say that," Ginny said coyly. "What about you? Anything interesting happening in your romance life?"

"My romance life is nonexistent," replied Amethyst, smiling.

"Really? What about Neville?" questioned Ginny, looking confused.

"What about him?" Amethyst looked even more confused.

"The two of you are dating!"

"Dating? Why would you think that?"

"At the Yule Ball, when your date ditched you and you were sitting alone, I persuaded Neville to leave me and be with you. That's when I met Michael!"

"From what I heard, you actually threatened to hex him if he didn't go," Amethyst interrupted the girl.

"Persuaded, threatened; same thing. But whatever, the both of you danced and were two of the last to leave that night. I remember you coming into the common room and the both of you smiling and laughing with your arms linked together. I just assumed that you two were an item,"

"Oh Ginny, you've got it all wrong. My date never ditched me. He felt ill so he I let him go and get some rest and I decided to just stay back and watch. We only danced as friends and nothing more," said Amethyst.

"Ginny! Amethyst! Time for lunch!" Mrs Weasley's voice called from downstairs. The two girls rushed down the stairs and into the dining room and saw the others already sitting down at the table. "Ginny, come and help me in the kitchen," After Ginny had told her that Mrs Weasley was keeping a close eye on her, Amethyst knew that the only reason Mrs Weasley was getting Ginny to help was to keep her away from the others.

"So how did it go with Ginny?" Hermione asked as Amethyst took a seat next to Neville.

"Yeah, did she threaten to hex you? That's what she did when I wouldn't stop asking her questions about Hermione's date to the Yule Ball," said Ron.

"You thoroughly deserved that, though," replied Hermione.

"She didn't threaten to hex me. She asked a few times if I could tell her but I said no. I didn't tell her anything," Amethyst lied, pretending to scratch her nose so that the others would not see it scrunching up. They all stared at her trying to see if she was lying. A few moments of silence passed and Amethyst finally broke. "Okay, okay, I did tell her. She used what happened to her with the diary against me and I felt bad for her. And she's really persuasive,"

"She is quite persuasive," Neville said, coming to Amethyst's defence before anyone could say anything.

"Ah we knew you'd crack eventually," George said.

"Me? I'm blaming the both of you for this one," said Amethyst, pointing to Fred and George. "You've corrupted her somehow. She used to be so sweet and innocent,"

"Sweet and innocent? Have you ever met our sister?" George asked incredulously.

"She once locked us in the broom shed for THREE hours because we wouldn't let her play Quidditch. She was eight!" added Fred. Then, they heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," Amethyst said, getting up and walking to the door. She opened it to see Harry and Mr Weasley, who were both smiling. "How did it go at the Ministry?" she asked once they went back to the kitchen.

"Er, it well really well. I was cleared of all charges," Harry replied.

"I knew it! You always get away with stuff!" roared Ron, engulfing his best friend in a hug. Everyone was rather pleased with the news that Harry would be able to return to Hogwarts that year despite the fact that they all said that they knew he would be cleared. Hermione had stopped looking so sickly with worry and Ginny and the twins were dancing to some sort of war cry.

"HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF!" the three of them were jumping and dancing around the dining table.

"Harry, dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast," Mrs Weasley said, laying out food on the table. They all took a seat back at the table and tucked into the spread around them.

Suddenly, a large brown owl came swooping through the window and into the dining room with an envelope tied to its leg. It landed right in front Amethyst, nearly landing on her plate of mashed potatoes.

"Is that for you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, yes, it is," replied Amethyst, reading the name on the front of the envelope. She tore it open and read the letter.

Don't write. Don't worry.

Rowan Avery

At the end of the very short letter, Rowan's signature was scrawled.

"Neville, Neville, take a look at this," Amethyst nudged the boy and gave him the letter to read.

When he finished reading it, he turned to Amethyst and they both looked at each other with worry.


End file.
